Centre okays Chandigarh-Ludhiana 6-lanned expressway

Chandigarh, May 4 (UNI) The Central government has cleared the decks for three Rs 3035 crore Inter-city transit projects for Punjab estimated to cost Rs 3035 crore.

The projects cleared were--- six-lanned expressway to link Chandigarh with Ludhiana and 4-lanned Ludhiana-Moga-Ferozepur and Chandigarh-Ropar-Kiratpur Sahib highways.

In addition, the Centre gave a commitment to "actively pursue" the 4-lanned highway project linking Chandigarh-Patiala-Sangrur-Bathinda.

These decisions were taken at a high level meeting between Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and National Highways T R Baalu and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal held at New Delhi today.

In addition to the above projects, the Centre also agreed to expedite the completion of 16 Railways Over Bridges to decongest traffic in the state. Mr Baalu assured the Chief Minister of all cooperation and financial assistance for providing class inter-state road connectivity.

Mr Baalu also permitted the state government to execute construction work of 4-lanning on the Desumajra-Kurali (17 KM) portion at an estimated cost of Rs 15 crore. The funds for this project would be provided by MoRTH.

The Union Minister also directed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to complete the work of 4-lanning of 20 KM stretch from Bidhipur railway station in Jalandhar to Dhilwan on the Jalandhar-Amritsar NH-I on priority basis.

Briefing Mr Baalu, the Chief Minister urged him to accord administrative and financial approval for the construction of Damoria Railway over-bridge at Jalandhar to honour the commitment of former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral. He said that the project was sanctioned for Rs 26.11 crore in December 2001 to be shared by MoRTH (Rs 20.78 crore) and the Railways (5.33 crore).

He said that MoRTH had not released any amount whereas Railways had released only Rs 2 crore. He requested Mr Baalu to immediately sanction and release the committed amount of Rs 20.78 crore for this project that was likely to be completed by June.

Mr Baalu also agreed to extend the Ludhiana-Moga-Talwandi Bhai National Highway Project by an additional 25 KMs to take it up to Ferozpur.

The Union Minister directed MoRTH to review the status of all the pending roads and RoB projects to ensure their implementation within a definite time frame to avoid unnecessary escalation of cost. Mr Baalu pointed out that the survey and project report for the 4-lanning of Chandigarh-Patiala-Sangrur-Bathinda (209 KM) would be undertaken soos so as to execute this project at the earliest.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, his Media Adviser Harcharan Bains, Principal Secretary D S Guru, Principal Resident Commissioner Anjali Chibb Duggal, Secretary PWD (B&R) Karan Avtar Singh.

UNI